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From: jlw@io.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.att,misc.kids
Subject: Re: SAT Practice Software Recommendations?
Message-ID: <249@io.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Mar-87 22:54:55 EST
Article-I.D.: io.249
Posted: Tue Mar 24 22:54:55 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Mar-87 06:19:50 EST
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Organization: AT&T IS Labs, Middletown NJ USA
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My contribution to the comments about the SATs is that practice
testing testing can only improve your skills to a certain level.
Being nervous, upset, sick, or unpracticed in that type of test
taking can only lower your scores.

BTW my authority for the following is my wife who is a ten year
ETS veteran.

Every standardized test from ETS contains some questions which
are not scored.  These questions are test questions which may or
may not appear on future tests.  They are being calibrated against
the test being administered and the demographics of the people
taking the test.  Those of you unfamiliar with ETS may be
surprized to learn that less than 50% of its revenues come
from administering the SATs for the CEEB (College Entrance
Examination Board).  Most of ETS's revenue comes from administering
tests for Real Estate, Insurance, Stock Brokerage Certification,
etc.  My wife was involved in the development (by an outside shop)
of a neat little gadget called Keyway.  Its a battery operated
microprocessor box with a removable encoded BBU RAM CART.
The box, about 4" by 6", has an LCD display and a membrane
keypad.  First you answer a lot of questions about yourself
SSN, TESTID, etc. Then you take the test. The form
of the answers is for question 37 the answer is D.
Standard multiple-choice type encoding with the box
having no knowledge of the test.  The questions are on paper.
After you have completed the test you give your plug-in cart
to the test administrator who plugs it into a PC which
grades your test on-the-spot.  Scores are shipped back to ETS
in duplicate by alternate routes for official scoring.
On problem encountered in this type of testing is that
they have a lot of walk-ons.  These people pay by check
or credit card and then, if they don't like their scores,
cancel the check or charge.

Another thing on the standardized testing horizon is
a system developed at ETS called CAT.  This stands for
Computerized Adaptive Testing.  The claim is that
within 23 questions they can get as good a result
as with the full SAT type test.  The method is
that each response leads to a a separate sub-tree of
new questions.  The problem is that new questions
cannot be easily hidden in the real questions.  This is
the only reason why the SAT doesn't take
a half-hour or less.



					Joseph L. Wood, III
					AT&T Information Systems
					Laboratories, Middletown
					(201) 957-5475
					ariel!jlw